Hi All,

As you may recall, we have a 14 week old wheaten terrier pup who was on Burns Minibites, but was always hungry and never seemed to gain weight. His poo was also a bit sloppy, but not badly so.

In the end we decided to try him on Arden Grange, and started introducing the Puppy food gradually over 10 days, increasing the Arden Grange in the mix by 10% each day (10%, then 20% etc etc).

Everything went absolutely fine at first. His poo firmed up and he started to gain weight. Then, on the very first day that he had 100% Arden Grange, he started with diarhoea. He doesn't go any more often than before, but the poo itself is totally liquid. He is also flat refusing to eat any dried food. It is now the third day and the poo is still watery. He nibbles his food when he is starving, but with no gusto.

On himself, he is fine enough. Still plays. Bit quieter than normal, but not much. He is very happy to chew on a puppy teething chew, so he doesn't have toothache. Also, I tried giving him some chicken (as a training treat from my hand in return for sits and downs, so it isn't associated with his normal food) and he gobbles it up, so I don't think he isn't hungry.

I'm not sure what to do. Part of me wants to take him to the vet, but on the other hand I keep thinking that as soon as I say we have just changed his food, the vet will say that it is probably that and tell me to wait. My question is, is this common after changing food, and are these symptoms typical? Also, should I just persevere and let him go hungry if he won't eat the Arden Grange? How long would it normally take for his tummy to adapt to the new food, or else how long do I wait before I decide that this food is bad for him?

I feel really guilty as he loved his old food, even if he wasn't gaining weight. Of course, this might all be connected with something completely different and nothing to do with the AG at all.

Am not an expert by no means but we have changed our pups food too. Although I would prefer him to have jwb it does seem to give him sloppy poops and he does seem extra hungry so then we gradually changed him to science plan it firmed them up well but he seemed to go an excessive amount - lots of smelly pressies in the morning etc so at the moment we have mixed both feeds in a tub and he gets a bit of both. This seems to working ok except when he devours other things!! I'm not sure whether it's acceptable or not but for the time being he's settled and not overtly 'bouncy'. And it's so much better than the puppy pedigree he was given by breeder and the bakers my husband bought once!!
Not sure if I've been any help but hope pup eats well soon.

He doesn't go any more often than before, but the poo itself is totally liquid. He is also flat refusing to eat any dried food. It is now the third day and the poo is still watery. He nibbles his food when he is starving, but with no gusto.

Vet. Definitely. You don't mess about with young pups -it could be something other than the food change, especially as you did it so gradually and carefully.

Hi Mark,

I hope you've heeded Marianne's advice and sought vet attention - the only way forward IMO and a.s.a.p

Please update when possible

regards, Teri

We went to the vet today and they think Parker has picked up a bacterial infection from something he has eaten out on a walk. Most likely one of those lovely delicious cowpats his doggy sister was showing him while we were too far away to stop them!

The poor chap is to be starved for 24 hours and then spend five days on a Royal Canin prescription diet. He also gets me to stick a syringe of kaolin (sp) in his mouth three times a day for the next three days. The really tricky bit will be trying to teach him to stay away from those more-ish cow poos!!!

Thanks a lot for your help and advice. We've now got a hungry puppy, but at least one we know is safe.

That's good to hear -didn't sound like it would have been caused just by the food change. Hope he's back to normal soon now!

Has Giardia been ruled out, or Camoylobacter.

> Has Giardia been ruled out, or Camoylobacter.

Given this was the first visit to the vet, I suspect they are trying to rule out the simplest things first. If there is no improvement in a few days I will request bloods to be taken. Fingers crossed it isn't giardia as the last time we had that it was passed on to me and I do not want to go through that again!!!

Good to hear the little guy's on the up and up
Thanks for the update,

regards, Teri

Hi ... my pup had giardia, at 5 weeks - I was looking after the whole litter. I was able to tell the vet what I thought it was 'cause a couple of years earlier I'd had it ... whilst backpacking along the Corsica high level route. You've had it, you can imagine what it was like 14 days on mountain tops with no medical access!!!! You can't miss those symptoms!! She also had campylobacter at 10 months ... which she kindly passed on to me! That was pretty yuk too, though think I have to say it was preferable to the giardia, but maybe that was 'cause I wasn't stuck up in the mountains.
Hope he's OK now, but in terms of changing food, I think you have to wait a minimum of 3 weeks.

Yay! A solid poo!!!!

Five years ago my life was all about going out with friends and having fun. I never thought I'd be following dogs around the garden and getting excited by the state of their poop!

> You've had it, you can imagine what it was like 14 days on mountain tops with no medical access!!!! You can't miss those symptoms!!

Oh my God! I don't even want to think about it. I just remember hurtling down the M1 at just short of the speed of sound and not being able to believe how far it was between services.......

> Five years ago my life was all about going out with friends and having fun. I never thought I'd be following dogs around the garden and getting excited by the state of their poop!
>

I know exactly what you mean, 'cause my middle bitch was the one with the giardia and campylobacter, we rather got used to very, very, very runny poos over the first 12 months!  The breeder of my 2 pups (15 weeks today and sired by my lad - 1 I hasten to add is being trained to go on and do a job, hence 2 - wouldn't normally recommend it!!) must have thought I was very strange when I kept going on about the quality of the poo produced by his litter.  He thought I was initially on about their paws, which means he probably thought I was even stranger!! (The pups were bred in Scotland, there was a language thing!!).  But lovely consistency of the litter's poos was really, really impressive, and I think I told him so every time I visited!
Congratulations on the solid poop - don't celebrate with cake though!!  I'm awaiting solid poop from my bitch pup ... read my thread about slugs!!!!